Talking about Movies
by ChristineJackson
Summary: Bored in the library, Hannah and Barbara play a small game thinking about their friends (Akko/Sucy, Hannah/Amanda, Barbara/Lotte. most characters are mentioned but not all appear).


"Alright, let's start with…Diana."

Hannah's tone is low, almost like a whisper, despite the library being pretty much empty. She looks at her friend with an inquisitive look.

Barbara rests her hand on her chin, with a concentrated expression as she thinks of their overachieving roommate. She considers her proper body posture, aristocrat upbringing, and the way she always goes for the most complex words at the moment of talking, which Barbara was sure it was a conscious decision on her part. It reminds her of black and white films, stories of powerful yet vulnerable heroes, beautifully designed yet simple dresses, and a sense of elegance that is just absent in most modern movies. With a clear answer on her mind, she looks back at Hannah.

"Diana would be… Classic Hollywood."

Hannah raises her eyebrow a little bit. "That's an odd connection."

"Not at all, it makes perfect sense. Think of her as…Gone with the Wind or Citizen Kane". Once she figures that her redheaded friend is convinced, she clasps her fingers together with a small smirk. "Alright, my turn. Give me a movie genre for… Amanda."

Hannah narrows her eyes for a moment. "Amanda…Amanda would be adventure films. Movies that provide an… exciting sense of wonder. Purposely throwing yourself to danger in order to find new experiences, marvelously choreographed action scenes. You know, stories about the discoveries of ancient secrets and hidden treasures that also would lead to the discovery of…new aspects of yourself." Hannah feels her lips forming a smile, then looks at Barbara's grinning expression and worries that she may have flattered their american classmate a bit too much. "B-but there would not be, like, anything meaningful in them! always B-rated flicks with zero substance, yeah! That's Amanda."

She looks around them, worried that maybe she spoke a little too loud, but finds the library as empty as it was when they came for their now-paused study session. Hoping that her blush isn't too noticeable, Hannah points at Barbara.

"Your turn now! Constanze?"

Barbara giggles a little bit, this was definitely a no-brainer. "Well duh, science fiction movies!" Giant robots, scientists working on their laboratories creating complex machines. Barbara entertains the idea that the short girl's birthplace and silent nature is reminiscent of german expressionism cinema, but she knows she may be reaching with that one. "Jasminka?"

Hannah lets out a mocking chuckle. "I dunno. The cooking channel?". After both share a small laugh, she tries to give a more thoughtful response. "But like, seriously, there is a sort of…warmth in her, you know? Always offering a tiny bit of what she's eating, always with that calm smile of hers, it kind of reminds me of those feel-good movies that you watch as a kid with your parents, the ones with happy endings no matter what, or no matter how cheesy. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if you will."

Barbara nods, not really having anything to add.

Hannah raises her eyebrow again, this time placing a hand under her chin. "Now what would Lotte be?"

Barbara's mind goes back to the finnish girl and remembers how she got to know her better thanks to their shared interest in Nightfall. She thinks of impossible love stories, star-crossed lovers, and above all, stories of girls that at some point may have been perceived as plain-looking or invisible, but later prove themselves beautifully unique and irreplaceable to the eyes of the previously dismissive hero. Unlike Hannah, she is not ashamed of her blushing face neither tries to hide it. She lets out a sigh before speaking.

"Lotte would be romance. Definitely."

"Hehe. Of course she would."

"You now. How about…Kagari?"

Hannah blinks, not really sure what to say at first, then finds a clear answer just by looking at Barbara's smirk, knowing for sure that she is thinking the same thing as her.

"Comedy!", they both say almost in unison, covering the giggling with their hands, more like a habit than a genuine attempt at keeping it quiet.

Atsuko Kagari. Always tripping over something, always making a mistake in her potions that resulted in some kind of explosion and her face covered in ashes. It's like she was born to make every situation around her funny, and her almost negative intellect didn't help, either. Everything she did was a source of laughs. Comedy certainly suited her alright.

Hannah wipes a small tear from her eye after laughing maybe a little too much, remembering it was her turn to ask.

"Okay Barb, what about creepy Susie?"

"Yeah. What about me?"

The monotone tone of voice is familiar, but the surprise is still there when they turn around and see the figure of a pale girl with long purple hair, her only visible eye looking directly at them with a tired expression, bangs covering the other one.

Hannah tries to stand back almost instinctively, accidentally tripping with one of her feet and falling out of her chair in a very unflattering manner, not unlike the way of the clumsy girl they were laughing at recently.

Barbara remains sitting where she is, petrified, with her hands placed in front of her as if she were trying to stop a sudden attack coming from Sucy. She attempts to keep her cool, but still can feel the sweat on the back of her neck.

Sucy just stands there, her expression unfazed. Is only the slow, uninterested way she blinks that reminds Hannah and Barbara that the girl standing before them is still alive (as far as they know).

"S-sucy! Hannah and I were just, we-" Still doing her best to keep whatever remains of her composure, Barbara hopes that she can get them out of there alive by sweet-talking somehow.

"How long have you been just STANDING there!?" Hannah's usual temper doesn't make it easy for Barbara, though.

Sucy just gives her a quick, dismissive glance, before looking directly at Barbara, who is now wishing that her sweating isn't as noticeable as she thinks it is.

"So? What movie genre I am?"

"Ah! Well, we- uhm, we thought that you, erm, obviously-"

As Barbara attempts to form a coherent lie, Sucy just gets closer to the point that their faces are mere inches to each other, as if to remind her that there would not be a way out of this unless she tells her what she wants to know.

"Answer the question. Which one I am?"

Barbara lets out a loud gulp. She can't really think of a convincing lie, so she decides to just answer honestly, ready to face the lavender witch's wrath.

"Horror. I…i was gonna say that you would be a horror movie."

Her expression doesn't change for the next seconds that to Barbara, felt like hours. Then a smile seems to form on her lips, just enough to let Barbara know that she was amused by her answer.

"Haha. Neat."

"Yo, Sucy! Hurry up! I already found the book that Lotte asked us to get!"

Hearing the familiar, loud voice that doesn't even try to pretend to be in a place meant for silence and studying, the three girls look at the other end of the library, where Akko is waving at them while holding an old, dusty book on her other hand. Sucy looks back at Hannah and Barbara, wearing the same uninterested expression as before.

"Gotta go now".

Feeling like she dodged a mushroom-shaped bullet, Barbara tries to keep the tiny bit of composedness that she barely had, but lets out a deep breath the very moment Sucy turns back and goes to where Akko is. She keeps looking at their direction, though, if only to make sure that the creepy girl actually leaves and doesn't have any kind of last card, snake or potion under her sleeve. While hearing them chat as they walk, Barbara can notice, once again, how Sucy's body language changes just a little bit when walking alongside Akko.

"Hey Suz, what were you doing with Hannah and Barbara just now?"

"Eh. We were just talking."

"About what?"

As they leave the library, the two blue team members can't hear their conversation anymore. Hannah, still shaking due to their near-Sucy experience, tries to regain her collectedness and opens her books again without saying anything, willing to forget anything related to the game they were playing to slack off studying. Barbara's attention is somewhere else, still looking at the door even after the two girls are no longer there.

If Barbara had to be honest, she didn't particularly care for either of them… even if Lotte was still trying to get her to know them better. But despite her own indifference, she couldn't deny that there was something…charming in how the weird, creepy, and off-putting girl with lavender hair managed to develop a soft spot for the clumsiest girl in school, and how it was hard to ignore given that she herself managed to notice certain patterns as she was looking for stuff to make fun of them. Back when she still found enjoyment in bullying the three red team members, she considered the idea to tease Sucy about her potential feelings towards her roommate, but even then her own sense of survival knew better than that.

The expression on her face softens up just a tiny bit, enough for Hannah to notice when she turns to talk to her again.

"Did you know, that despite how different and irreconcilable they may seem, the horror and comedy genres have a lot in common? Many film and literally critics agree on that."

Hannah just looks at her with a confounded expression.

"Huh?"

"If you pay attention, you would notice how many of the most acclaimed horror movies have a little bit of comedy in them. Not even as a foil, mostly as…a small piece that you didn't know it would be missing. Something that you never thought would fit, but it does amazingly so. Yes, comedy and horror movies can exist on their own and work perfectly fine alone…", pausing her words for a moment, she looks for her notes scrapped on the table to resume her studies, "…But is only when placed alongside with comedy that the horror genre gets to truly shine to its full potential."

"What the heck are you going on about now?"

As if taken back from a trance, Barbara blinks a little, then just shrugs.

"I guess I just thought it was interesting." She says almost instantly forgetting why that particular comparison came to her mind. "What about us though?"

"Ah?"

"Yeah, what movie genre would we be?"

Hannah scratches her head. She considers the options left, even if at this point she is not really interested to keep playing the little game they both made up. "I dunno. Animation?"

Seemingly considering the answer for a moment, Barbara lets out a dismissive laugh while opening one of her books. "Ha! As if."

"Yeah, you are right. I'm not a big fan of cartoons, in all honesty." Hannah says as she thinks of repetitive Saturday-morning animated shows, the ones with talking animals wearing funny clothes, stock sound effects, and the same background scene over and over. "Is just stuff for little kids anyway. Like, who has time for that kind of crap?"

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **Hannah and Barbara being named after Hanna-Barbera will never not be funny to me.**_

 _ **Has something like this been done before? at first i wanted to compare the characters to music genres and bands but besides picking Kraftwerk for Constanze i've got nothing. Kinda not very really convinced how this one turned out, but still, i think is better to just publish it instead of letting it accumulate metaphorical dust in my drafts forever lol. I think I also better look for some beta readers for my next fic, i have a couple of other unfinished ideas even if I am not really sure what do…writing-wise? Guess we'll see.**_

 _ **Amanda being Hannah's gay awakening is a really cute concept. Is really growing on me!**_

 _ **Still, thank you for reading! Hope you all enjoyed this.**_


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